It is, of course, a sign that Wednesday’s funeral will present two very different Lady Thatchers to the world. On the one hand is the woman of state, escorted to St Paul’s by the combined forces that were under her command and to whom she owed victory in the Falklands.

On the other is the Methodist girl from Grantham, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother, whose faith was profound and rooted in her upbringing by Alderman Alf Roberts, in which was instilled a love of the Authorised Bible and the hymns of Charles Wesley.

Yesterday, the full details of how the death of Lady Thatcher will be marked were disclosed.

It will be a funeral on a scale not seen since the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 2002, and one which will be surrounded by the tightest security since the wedding of the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.

The most public part of the funeral will be the procession as Lady Thatcher’s coffin is taken from Westminster to St Paul’s through the centre of London, first in a hearse, then by the military for the final part of the journey.

Yesterday, the Army officer in charge of the procession described how plans for it had been based on “precedent and pragmatism”.

The first challenge was that unlike members of the Royal family, Lady Thatcher had no formal links to the military, but a deep affection and bond with those who had served in the Falklands.

Maj Andrew Chatburn, ceremonial staff officer for the Household Division, who is in charge of choreographing the parade, said: “On this occasion it was felt appropriate that Service personnel who have an association or connection with the Falklands conflict, for which the late prime minister is pretty famous for, was probably the most suitable on this occasion. Of course, Baroness Thatcher’s wishes will have been taken into account.”

The procession will start at St Clement Danes, the central church of the RAF, where the coffin will be taken from the hearse and put on to a gun carriage.

The carriage, which was seen for the first time yesterday, is a First World War-era gun carriage of The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.

In a nod to military tradition, it is likely to be named after Lady Thatcher.

It will be drawn by six black horses, three of them mounted, all with their manes removed to give them a sleeker appearance and stop the harness snagging, and led by a charger, Mister Twister. Three soldiers from the King’s Troop will walk alongside the carriage and in front will be the Band of the Royal Marines.

The procession, timed to last 19 minutes, will see the Union flag-draped coffin travel first along the Strand, then Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill to St Paul’s.

Maj Chatburn said the procession poses a “significant challenge for the musicians” as the pace of funeral marches is irregular. While the pace of the music is 60 beats per minute, the procession will move at 70 beats per minute due to the speed at which the horses walk.

Lining the streets will be personnel from all three Services along with three marching bands; the RAF band, closest to St Clement Danes; the Band of the Scots Guards and the Band of the Royal Marines, all with their drums draped in black.

“The soldiers, sailors and airmen that we have on parade are all professional soldiers, sailors and airmen first of all,” Maj Chatburn said.

“They all come into this specifically for this job, they will concentrate on this for the next two or three days. They are professional service personnel who will address this with the dignity and solemnity and, more importantly, the professional approach that one would expect of the Armed Services.”

At St Paul’s, Lady Thatcher’s coffin will be met by a guard of honour provided by the Prince of Wales Company of 1st Bn Welsh Guards.

A bearer party, drawn from ships, squadrons and regiments which served in Falklands conflict, will place the coffin on their shoulders and the gun carriage will draw away. The bearer party, dressed in regimental or Service uniform and selected according to their height, comprises a sailor; a Royal Marine; a Scots Guard; a Welsh Guard; a member of the Royal Artillery; a Royal Engineer; a member of the Parachute Regiment; a Gurkha; and two members of the RAF. They will carry the coffin up the west steps of St Paul’s, which will be lined by 14 pensioners from the Royal Hospital Chelsea and 18 Service personnel: six from the Navy, six from the RAF and six members of the Blues and Royals.

The officer in command of the bearer party is Maj Nicholas Mott of the Welsh Guards, while the chief marshal, who will walk behind the procession band, is Falklands veteran Col Hugh Bodington.

Inside, the service, attended by 2,300 mourners, will proceed according to the wishes of Lady Thatcher: traditional in every respect, from its choice of hymns to the use of the Book of Common Prayer. The bidding will be given by the Very Rev David Ison, the Dean of St Paul’s, before the first hymn, To Be a Pilgrim (He Who Would Valiant Be), which first appeared in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Other hymns include Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, by Charles Wesley, whose brother John was the founder of Methodism. It is far from the only piece of music in which Lady Thatcher’s family and religion are emphasised. Psalm 84, set to the music of Johannes Brahms, is included; Lady Thatcher chose it to be played at the 2003 funeral of her husband, Sir Denis.

The first reading will be by Amanda, Sir Mark Thatcher’s daughter by his first marriage to Diane Beckett, who is in her first year at the University of Richmond, Virginia.

It will put both her and her older brother, who works in a pharmacist’s shop in Texas, in front of the world for the first time, and will be followed by David Cameron reading John XIV v1-6, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me”.

Both readings are from the King James – or Authorised – version of the Bible. Lady Thatcher’s wish, another reflection of her Methodist upbringing, was that the readings be from it.

“Lady Thatcher was particularly fond of the King James Bible and found its prose to be beautifully poetic,” a senior source said yesterday.

There will also be poems printed in the order of service – for privately, Lady Thatcher had an immense love of poetry, a reflection of a childhood spent reading thanks to her father’s weekly visits with her to the library.

One of them will be Ode: Intimations of Immortality, by William Wordsworth, which she had learnt at school.

The sermon will be delivered by the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, a family friend. The final blessing will be by Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Finally, the hearse will take Lady Thatcher first to the chapel at The Royal Hospital Chelsea ahead of a private cremation, with the bells ringing half-muffled.

It will mark the final passing of a stateswoman, and the moment when her family can mourn her as they knew her.